Well, the backdrop is random each time you select the game, so it changes from time to time. I am just wondering where Steam gets these pictures they use. I have a very specific reason as to why this interests me.
Steam's been having screenshots show behind the overlay for a while now.
Yes... but that does't really answer my question. I am curious as to where they got this particular screenshot because it is a screenshot of one of my own runs from a long time ago! That is Rallaern, one of my sorcerers! He is in my first attempt at an all PC party from back when you had to start the game in MP and move the save file.
You misunderstand him. Steam's been using your *own* screenshots as backgrounds for a while now. Though it only randomly picks the ones you've taken with F12.
Just to be clear, I am using the word "your" subjectively here. It's different for everyone.
Oh... huh. Where do they get the default ones then? I haven't taken any screenshots with f12... I only got steam recently and I haven't touched that run since, umm... long time ago...
This is very interesting for me as I am quite concerned about my privacy and I use Steam games. Are you telling that you believe that Steam found the image in your computer and the image was not taken from a Steam game run or from a folder of the computer that is not one of the Steam game folders, the one in programs and the one in documents?
Oh... huh. Where do they get the default ones then? I haven't taken any screenshots with f12... I only got steam recently and I haven't touched that run since, umm... long time ago...
Did you have any screenshots in your my documents/baldur's gate enhanced edition folder?
@elminster Well... I have a few... Maybe around 180 or something... Heh... But looking through them I cannot seem to find one that has a picture of Rallaern's inventory. There are quite a few other screenshots that my Steam launcher uses and this is the only one I really recognize as from one of my games.
@gorgonzola No, I really doubt it. I don't think you have anything to worry about there. I kinda have a theory as to where it came from, but I would rather keep that to myself until I know for certain.
@Hudzy You are right! That is definitely Marble's Crew (my nickname for that run) in that screenshot!
This definitely sheds some light on things. I also am pretty sure that my hunch was right about where the screenshot came from.
Here is what I *think* may have happened. Back when I was doing that run, I was a beta tester doing volunteer work for Beamdog. As a regular part of that work I would give them my save files in order to demonstrate various bugs that I had found. I suspect that a Beamdog developer around that time needed some nice fancy screenshots to put on the Steam store page and, by pure chance, they loaded my game and took a screenshot of it to use for the store page. It makes sense now; I recall once making a thread to ask the developers if they ever played BG when they had spare time, and most of them said they either didn't have time or were so tired from working on the game that playing it would seem like a chore. Maybe that is why they used my game instead of one of their own, or maybe this was a way of saying "thank you" for all my work. Regardless of the reason, my curiosity is satisfied on the matter and think it is kinda neat that my game was used for this.
Steam can't know where a game stores its screenshots, and if it could then I highly doubt the programmer responsible for the feature would be working at Valve rather than NASA.
Why even bother, when you can randomly pull an image from store page, which will work infallibly for every single product released.
I had never done it, but I have a couple of friends that did look what is freely available on the net for an hacker, and told me that you can find every information you may need, hacking tools and even assistance. they also warned me that if someone really want to look into or control my computer there is really nothing that I or other normal users can do to avoid it. We are lucky that no one has really interest to hack our computer, spamming Trojans and key loggers and waiting that some one get caught in the net is much more productive than trying to fish a single particular fish. They, unlike me, are very good at computers, can easily fix a messed up OS, I have my reasons to trust them, even if may be I would not use them as doctors for my computer if it has problems
As we give an OK to the installation of the Steam client we open a door, just because we trust Steam. And with good reasons, it has a reputation and if they would hack into our computers and the thing would be discovered for them it would be a big problem. So I am convinced that they don't do it, even if what Tresset told worried me so I did ask him for more information. Now the "case" for me is closed, I am not worried any more. But I was, not only because I feared that Steam can stole the porn photos of my ferret familiar (is a female) and Boo making love, but because once there is a vulnerability, a door has been opened, others can use it if they are aware of it.
I am not convinced that to work at Nasa is needed to hack into someone's else computer.
Steam will put up 3 different kinds of pictures on the game's main menu.
1. Screenshots you've taken from your screenshot library - you can view these on the main page. 2. Stock photos that somehow relate to the game - I'm not exactly sure where it is that they come from - store page images, other peoples public screenshots etc. 3. Pictures that steam takes on its own at random times while you're playing.
My assumption is that in the case of #3 this only occurs if you have steam community enabled for the game because I've never seen that behavior with games that I've disabled it on - for example Mass Effect 1 has never posted a randomly taken screenshot because I've never gotten the game to run smoothly with steam community enabled lol. This appears consistent across several games in-which I've got the in-game community disabled. So if you've got some particular security concern just disable the steam overlay for that game.
Also, I would assume this sort of behavior would occur if you were playing through the "big picture mode" as well - though I doubt that's used much for BG lol.
I took my first screenshot of the game and now it is the only one shown in the background. I am still convinced that the image of Rallaern must have come from a Beamdog dev somehow. I mean, it isn't like the Steam store page has everyone's randomly taken screenshots on it...
If you haven't taken any screenshots while in-game via the Steam client, it will just pull screenshots of the game from the store page for the background.
If you have taken screenshots, then they show up as the background when you highlight the game in your library.
Tresset
Member, Moderator Posts: 8,264
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Since the BG games can be launched without starting Steam, I rarely start it up.
Just to be clear, I am using the word "your" subjectively here. It's different for everyone.
Are you telling that you believe that Steam found the image in your computer and the image was not taken from a Steam game run or from a folder of the computer that is not one of the Steam game folders, the one in programs and the one in documents?
@gorgonzola No, I really doubt it. I don't think you have anything to worry about there. I kinda have a theory as to where it came from, but I would rather keep that to myself until I know for certain.
This definitely sheds some light on things. I also am pretty sure that my hunch was right about where the screenshot came from.
Here is what I *think* may have happened. Back when I was doing that run, I was a beta tester doing volunteer work for Beamdog. As a regular part of that work I would give them my save files in order to demonstrate various bugs that I had found. I suspect that a Beamdog developer around that time needed some nice fancy screenshots to put on the Steam store page and, by pure chance, they loaded my game and took a screenshot of it to use for the store page. It makes sense now; I recall once making a thread to ask the developers if they ever played BG when they had spare time, and most of them said they either didn't have time or were so tired from working on the game that playing it would seem like a chore. Maybe that is why they used my game instead of one of their own, or maybe this was a way of saying "thank you" for all my work. Regardless of the reason, my curiosity is satisfied on the matter and think it is kinda neat that my game was used for this.
ASA.Why even bother, when you can randomly pull an image from store page, which will work infallibly for every single product released.
they also warned me that if someone really want to look into or control my computer there is really nothing that I or other normal users can do to avoid it. We are lucky that no one has really interest to hack our computer, spamming Trojans and key loggers and waiting that some one get caught in the net is much more productive than trying to fish a single particular fish.
They, unlike me, are very good at computers, can easily fix a messed up OS, I have my reasons to trust them, even if may be I would not use them as doctors for my computer if it has problems
As we give an OK to the installation of the Steam client we open a door, just because we trust Steam.
And with good reasons, it has a reputation and if they would hack into our computers and the thing would be discovered for them it would be a big problem. So I am convinced that they don't do it, even if what Tresset told worried me so I did ask him for more information. Now the "case" for me is closed, I am not worried any more.
But I was, not only because I feared that Steam can stole the porn photos of my ferret familiar (is a female) and Boo making love, but because once there is a vulnerability, a door has been opened, others can use it if they are aware of it.
I am not convinced that to work at Nasa is needed to hack into someone's else computer.
1. Screenshots you've taken from your screenshot library - you can view these on the main page.
2. Stock photos that somehow relate to the game - I'm not exactly sure where it is that they come from - store page images, other peoples public screenshots etc.
3. Pictures that steam takes on its own at random times while you're playing.
My assumption is that in the case of #3 this only occurs if you have steam community enabled for the game because I've never seen that behavior with games that I've disabled it on - for example Mass Effect 1 has never posted a randomly taken screenshot because I've never gotten the game to run smoothly with steam community enabled lol. This appears consistent across several games in-which I've got the in-game community disabled. So if you've got some particular security concern just disable the steam overlay for that game.
Also, I would assume this sort of behavior would occur if you were playing through the "big picture mode" as well - though I doubt that's used much for BG lol.
If you have taken screenshots, then they show up as the background when you highlight the game in your library.